Kim Guadagno takes the oath of office for her second term last week.Tony Kurdzuk/The Star-Ledger

This week’s political trivia quiz: Name two political figures who were born in Waterloo, Iowa, and later went on to make national headlines.

Give up? One is Michele Bachmann. Bachmann later moved to Minnesota, where she got elected to Congress. She made news in 2012 by running a Republican presidential primary campaign that was highly amusing if not highly successful.

The other is Kim Guadagno. Guadagno later moved to New Jersey, where she got elected lieutenant governor. She made news last week after the Hoboken mayor accused her of demanding approval of a big development in return for Hurricane Sandy aid.

Maybe Guadagno should have moved to Minnesota as well. From what we’ve learned so far about this scandal, she seems never to have developed the political skills needed for New Jersey politics.

I’ve been to Waterloo. Nice place — if you like corn. But it’s not the sort of place where you’d develop the sharp elbows needed to navigate the waters of Hudson County. There the lieutenant governor appears to have run aground, done in by Dawn Zimmer.

At first glance, the Hoboken mayor does not appear to be a classic Hudson County pol. She dresses as if she were still living in the New England town where she went to college. And everything about her screams out "do-gooder."

Dawn ZimmerJOURNAL FILE PHOTO

But she has a habit of taking notes, as Guadagno learned to her dismay. And in those notes she recorded what she says was a meeting in a parking lot during which Guadagno told her that future Hurricane Sandy relief funds would be contingent on her approval of a big project being pushed by a well-connected developer.

Zimmer charges that after Guadagno asked her to approve that proposal by the Rockefeller Group, the lieutenant governor uttered a conspiratorial "if you tell anyone, I’ll deny it."

I have no idea if that’s true. But I have heard that this is a common verbal tic among people close to Christie.

The phrase is meant to be taken as a joke among Jersey guys. Coming from a former assistant U.S. attorney, however, it might have had a more sinister ring to it — especially when the current U.S. attorney for New Jersey examines it.

That examination is now underway, but it could have been avoided if Guadagno had taken a more subtle approach. The lieutenant governor would certainly be within her rights to seek local approval of a multimillion-dollar development that would bring lots of high-paying jobs and high-income residents to New Jersey. That’s nothing to be ashamed of. In fact, it’s Guadagno’s job. She heads the state Partnership for Action and travels the state seeking to spur exactly the sort of economic growth symbolized by that Hoboken project.

There’s a smart way to phrase such a request that carries with it all of the intimidation but none of the potential liability. It would go something like this: "We realize that Hoboken needs tens of millions in federal hazard-mitigation aid to prevent future flooding. But there’s a limited amount of such funding available and we need to direct it to where it will do the most good for the state’s economy. Approval of that development would certainly enhance your city’s profile relative to your competitors."

The mayor would get the point. But she would not get any ammunition to use against the lieutenant governor. There are no headlines in that sort of statement, just an inducement to deep sleep. (Check Tom Moran here for an analysis of why it's likely Zimmer is telling the truth.)

Instead Guadagno seems to have made a major error — adopting the banter of a Jersey native without the street sense that goes with it.

Guadagno clearly underestimated her adversary. My sources in Hudson County tell me Zimmer is a master at adopting the pose of the victim — and then throwing a sucker punch better than any brawler on the docks.

Five acres of undeveloped land on the north side of Hoboken are at the heart of a dispute involving Mayor Dawn Zimmer and Lt. Gov.Kim Guadagno.(Molly J. Smith/The Jersey Journal)

Her timing was masterful. If Zimmer had gone to the networks a month ago trying to peddle this tale of woe, she never would have gotten past the call screener. But with the Bridgegate scandal breaking, the mayor realized that diary was pure dynamite.

Last week Zimmer lit the fuse. If the dynamite goes off, the former Kim McFadden may end up wishing she’d stayed out there where the corn grows high — and the elbows aren’t quite as sharp.

ALSO: As I noted in this column, the people in the Christie administration were caught saying a lot of things that smart politicians would never say.

BELOW: Here's an interesting wrinkle. A lawyer who represented a fired official charges that at the time Zimmer testified she did not keep a diary.